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LAST TRAIN HOME

Monday, February 28th, 2011

To a large extent life in China is opaque to the rest of the world. The most many people in North America get to see of China is the “Made In China” label on a piece of clothing or other item at Walmart. Last Train Home takes you on a train ride home and back, with one of the hundred-thirty million migrant worker families who make these export items. Every year the 130 million migrant workers in China go home for the Chinese New Year holiday. Last Train Home looks at the life of one family over approximately twenty-eight monts, including the parents pilgrimages home to spend time with their children.

Last Train Home begins in 2006 and continues through 2008 when the Olympics are held in Beijing. In the winter of 2006, filmmaker Lixin Fan and crew follow a husband and wife, the Zhangs, home from urban industrial Guangzhou to rural Huilong Village in Sichuan province. A trip of 2100 kilometers (1304 miles), a trip that is in doubt until the last minute when Mr. and Mrs. Zhang finally obtain tickets for the train. But having tickets is only part of the process as thousands of people are also trying to find and board trains home in hugely overcrowded train stations.

The husband and wife work in a factory and appear to live in a small room with only a curtain separating them from the hall and the noise of the rest of the building, near the workplace. They left their home and rural farm life sixteen years before to find work to support their family and send their children to school. The children have been left in Sichuan under the care of the grandmother. For most of the children’s lives they only get to see their parents at the New Years Holiday when their parents return. The relationship between parents and children is tenuous and strained in the film.

Early on the documentary makes a distinction between the life left behind in Huilong Village and the crowded, urban manufacturing environment of Guang’an. There are beautiful shots of the countryside near the end of the day in Huilong that seem far away from the crowded minimal existence of the city. The parents, working, crouched over sewing machines are contrasted with scenes of the children helping the grandmother in the fields. The children are doing manual labor but in the open air among nature. This is where you meet Qin, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the Zhangs, their ten-year-old son and the grandmother. Qin talks about how most of the young people have left the village to find jobs elsewhere. She does her farm chores and seems conflicted about continuing her education and her relationship with her parents.

The adjustment for the parents, and all migrants growing up in a rural environment, who then become workers in what appears to be harsh urban working conditions, seems to be a troublesome transition as depicted in the film. While not discussed in the documentary, the intimate conversations between husband and wife, and the interaction of members of the family point to psychological anxiety caused by this life style. This becomes apparent in a scene where there is a confrontation between Qin and her parents.

Linix Fan worked as both director and director of Photography/camera operator with one additional camera operator. The cinematography is excellent and the coverage of the huge migration of the workers places the viewer in the midst the huge crowds as they surge ahead to board the train. The footage of the trains moving through the Chinese countryside are beautiful and show a great deal of the terrain on the 1300-mile journey. Last Train Home is edited by Linix Fan and Mary Stephen. There is a rhythm and pacing to the editing with great use of the motion and sounds of the train. Music by Oliver Alary

At one point in the story, Qin, the daughter now seventeen, decides to leave school, come to the city and work much to the objection of her Mother. It’s interesting to see what it’s like for a young person from the country beginning to work at a sewing machine, a job that appears to have no future. This is an insightful segment from a social standpoint as Qin tries to adjust to her new life.

This documentary examines the life of the migrants and the effect of this life style on the structure of rural Chinese families. The close nit family, with children who are guided by traditional family values has been altered to the point where it brings stress on the parents and the children. This is manifest in the relationship of Qin and her mother and father during one of the holiday trips home. Last Train Home is a candid, observational view of the Zhang’s as a one family out of 130 million, however it seems likely they are representative of the types of problems that other families face.

Last Train Home is a glimpse of China and the changes that are happening as this huge country industrializes and draws its workforce from a largely agrarian culture. It is also a documentary that stays close to the human side of the equation in this changing world.

J R Martin

TRAILER Last Train Home

Tags: China, Directing Documentary Films, Documentary Film Review, Last Train Home, Migrant Workers
Posted in Documentary Film Reviews, News, Subscribers | No Comments »

MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

I started watching Manufactured Landscapes while exercising on a treadmill. You may think that a treadmill is not an appropriate place to watch a documentary film, but in this case it might be, especially the opening scene, a tedious eight-minute long track of the assembly floor in a huge Chinese manufacturing factory. The entire operation feels like one giant treadmill where workers repeat the same task hundreds of times each day.

The subject matter of Manufactured Landscapes is unique; it’s probably worth risking your sanity as you watch the opening scene of the seemingly endless manufacturing floor with row after row of assembly tables manned by workers in yellow shirts. There’s a rule-of-thumb in filmmaking that even it you’re trying to depict boredom, you can’t bore your audience. In this case a “manufactured landscape” is what’s being depicted. After about 30 seconds of this opening tracking shot, you get it! The next seven minutes-thirty seconds is repetitive. Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has said, ”at times it’s good to hold the shot, [that] meaning accrues in duration.” The “meaning” of this shot accrued in about ten seconds!

The redeeming value for the documentary is that both the cinematography and Burtynsky’s photography are excellent. The documentary explores industrial landscapes in China and in one sequence a beach in Bangladesh where they salvage ships for scrap. The problem with this documentary is the difference between observing a still photograph hanging on a wall and watching a film. You can stand as long as you want in front of a photograph, take it in and move on when you’re ready. But with a film the audience is captive so you can’t have everyone sit there with the same static shot, even to make a point, because once the audience reads the scene they will loose interest if nothing new happens. The reverse is also true, you need to give the viewer enough time to read the shot. There is a rhythm and pattern to editing. In addition you are dealing with a medium that requires action and reaction. The fact that the camera is in motion, recording a static situation does not create action that’s not there.

Overall the pace of this film feels like you are visiting a museum and looking at the work on the walls. After awhile you get sensory overload and need to take a break. In fact there are scenes of people walking around a museum gallery looking at Burtynsky’s photographs. On top of that at times you hear the fiimmakers discussing the shot, setting up shots and just being in the film. It all seems a bit self-indulgent with no obvious purpose except in one sequence where Chinese officials are seen trying to stop Burtynsky from taking photographs of the coal mining process in China.

There are vivid scenes in the film that convey the feeling that you’re there, in the landscapes depicted, experiencing these human constructed alterations to the landscape panorama. Other documentaries have approached this subject in someway. The Qatsi trilogy beginning with Koyaanisqatsi (life out of balance), Coppola, is one of the most famous. Manufactured Landscapes does approach some of the same subjects but without the sophistication and cinematic techniques of the Qatsi documentaries.

The imagery in Manufactured Landscapes is strong and vivid. For example the shots and scenes showing the massive equipment and resources used for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China, are compositions that covey the textures and patterns of this mammoth and controversial undertaking.

A number of scenes are shown in black and white in the film for no obvious reason. Black and white, essentially shades of gray, is technically an abstraction, since most humans perceive the world in color. It seems like shifting between abstraction and reality should have some purpose that is apparent in the story. In Manufactured Landscapes it simply seems like a device with no particular significance beyond a transition to introduce color into the scene.

Even with its lack cinematic story telling technique, Manufactured Landscapes is worth watching. It is a montage that allows you to experience these industrial landscapes, their impact on the environment and to observe the people who live in those surroundings. Burtynsky makes the statement that he is not attempting to judge what is shown as good or bad. He is presenting it so you can make up your own mind.

Well, no matter how colorful and beautifully depicted these landscapes may be they do not seem in harmony with nature or being human. They feel more like a post apocalyptic toxic world where humans are like ants marching in unison to bring back food for the colony. These “Manufactured Landscapes” are, despite the aesthetics, depressing man made disasters.

J R Martin

TRAILER

Tags: Art, Documentary Film Review, Edward Burtynsky, environment
Posted in Documentary Film Reviews, Subscribers | No Comments »

RESTREPO -- ONE PLATOON, ONE VALLEY, ONE YEAR

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

“Restrepo” is a bullets over your head, crawl on your belly documentary experience in which you will “take fire” with combat soldiers who are actually fighting in the Korengal Valley near the Pakistan border in Afghanistan. A person who hasn’t been in firsthand military combat cannot really know what it’s like to be in this situation. This documentary may be as close as you can get to actually being there.

In Restrepo American soldiers of the Second Platoon, B Company, Second Battalion, 503^rd Infantry Regiment, 173^rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team are sent to the Korengal Valley outpost in Afghanistan to extend the “security bubble” by establishing a new outpost to defend the firebase and the local villagers from the Taliban. The firebase is isolated and surrounded on all sides by Taliban who continuously fire on soldiers from the mountains that surround the area.

This cinema verite style documentary begins with young men on a train hours before deployment. Although combat ready, they appear to not have a complete grip on what they are headed into for the next fifteen months. The moment they arrive near the firebase, their vehicles come under fire. Once in the compound it isn’t possible to walk around without drawing fire. There’s at least one firefight every day. The result of these opening scenes is to give the viewer a first hand taste of what the soldiers are experiencing.

Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, on assignment to write for Vanity Fair, visited and were embedded with the Second Platoon over a one-year period. They shot 150 hours of footage in every type of situation including going on patrol with the soldiers. The verite footage is complimented by interviews with selected soldiers done separately out of the combat zone. On patrol one night Hetherington fell and broke his fibula. In order to not slow down the patrol he walked all night with his injury. In Bagram he had a metal plate put in, went back to the US, but decided to return to Afghanistan before he was fully recovered.

"RESTREPO" KORENGAL VALLEY, AFGAHANISTAN PHOTO TIM HETHERINGTON

The mission of the new troops becomes one of establishing an additional outpost on high ground to help alleviate the vulnerability of the current base. To do this they must literally dig in to the top of a rise to build a new outpost while constantly under fire. One of the soldiers, a platoon medic, PFC Juan “Doc” Restrepo is killed trying to rescue a wounded soldier. The men name the new fifteen-man outpost after him. The “Restrepo” outpost becomes the main focus and title of the documentary.

It took the filmmakers time to gain the confidence of the soldiers. Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger made ten trips to the Kornengal Valley from 2007 to 2008 where, after a helicopter flight into the main firebase in the valley, and a two-hour walk, they stayed with the men of the Second Platoon at the Restrepo outpost. For much of the time this outpost was sandbags and ammo under constant attack. The filmmakers slept, ate, and went on patrol with the soldiers. According to the filmmakers, “The surrounding mountains rose to a height of 10,000 feet – all of which was traversed on foot. Long operations meant carrying enough camera batteries to last a week or more, on top of the fifty or so pounds of gear required on even ordinary patrols. Cameras got smashed into rocks, clogged with dirt and hit with shell cartridges during firefights. Men were killed and wounded during filming, so there was a constant issue of when it was OK to turn on the cameras and when it was not. Only the filmmakers’ close relationship to the men of the platoon allowed them to keep shooting in situations where other journalists might have been told to stop.” Cameras used included Sony HVR-Z1, Sony HVR-A1, and Sony V1 VariCam for interviews done three months after deployment at the Battalion Headquarters in Italy.

The uniqueness and success of Restrepo is that it creates an actuality that is totally from the soldiers point-of-view. The politics and other factors of their having to be there are not explored. It is the intimate story of soldiers in combat conditions, fighting day-after-day with no breaks, living in the trenches. Restrepo goes beyond fictional wartime drama where the viewer suspends disbelief for ninety minutes to imagine what it might be like in a combat situation. There is no need to “suspend disbelief” in this documentary.

Restrepo is reminiscent of The Anderson Platoon, a 1967 documentary from the Viet Nam era, where the filmmakers are also embedded with a combat platoon. In both films the lives of the soldiers, the issues they face daily, how they deal with constant threat of death for themselves, their fellow warriors and their willingness to continue fighting are explored. Junger and Hetherington have created a spontaneous, unpretentious and engaging nonfiction reality. The interviews shot separately away from the war zone allow the soldiers interviewed to reflect on their feelings and experience. The interviews are then skillfully edited into the overall documentary providing reflective moments in the midst of battle.

J R Martin

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TRAILER

Tags: Academy Award Nominee 2011, Combat, Documentary Film Review, Korengal Valley, Restrepo, War in Afghanistan
Posted in Director, Documentary Film Reviews, Subscribers | 5 Comments »

SOUTH OF THE BORDER Oliver Stone Reports. You Decide.

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

South Of The Border, a film by Oliver Stone, is a trip by Mr. Stone to South America where he conducts conversations with the elected Presidents of several countries including, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales, Bolivia, Lula da Silvo, Brazil, Cristina Kirchner and her husband Nestor Kirchner (the ex president), Argentina, Fernando Lugo, Paraguay, Rafael Correa, Ecuador. Oliver Stone and Hugo Chavez visit Cuba for a short conversation with Raul Castro. The conversations reveal a different picture of these leaders than the one portrayed in the media. The Presidents speak about their goals for their countries, the region and how they regard the United States among other topics.

In this film the President of each country talk about their national goals and growing independence from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United States and Europe. Lula da Silvo proudly tells Stone that Brazil paid off the IMF and that they do not owe money to any other country. The politics they adhere to are strong nationalism and left leaning policies that they believe will help the people of their countries.

Oliver Stone facilitates an opposing viewpoint to the propaganda put out by so called news outlets like Fox and other news media in the United States. In general, South Of The Border disputes the prevailing perceptions about the leaders of each South American country visited. Stone presents the notion that a new order is emerging in South America, a continent once dominated by foreign colonial powers and corporate interests. Most of the Presidents had a great deal of distain for the policies of George W. Bush during his presidency of the United States.

It’s enlightening and interesting to hear the other side of the story. There is no attempt to examine or dispute what Chavez and other leaders tell Stone in the conversations he has with each of them. Stone’s interview style is conversational and apparently sympathetic to the views of the interviewees. No strongly controversial questions are asked. There is “B” roll from US cable television painting Chavez and others as dictators and socialists. The conversations and interviews presented contradicts this footage.

The main focus of the film is Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The film disputes the idea that Chavez is a dictator showing that he has been elected to office eleven times. Lines of Venezuelans are seen cueing up to vote. Many appear to be Chavez supporters wearing red shirts. Mr. Chavez takes Oliver Stone on a couple tours including the site of his humble beginnings, and other sites demonstrating changes he has implemented. A notable achievement is the fact that Venezuela now produces a large of amount of its own food. Mr. Chavez also voices his opinions regarding the way he has been vilified by the media both at home and in the US. He appears to derive his support from the poor and working class citizens of the country. The leaders of the other six countries included in South Of The Border appear to respect Chavez’s ideas about South American solidarity. He appears with Oliver Stone in some of the other countries while the interviews with those Presidents are conducted.

Documentary films, like nonfiction books, have a point-of-view (POV), because human beings, who are subjective by nature, make them. A documentary should be able to pass the “actuality” test and the “objective reality” test to qualify as nonfiction reality. Are events and interviews actual or staged? Objective reality deals with supporting facts that are true or false. Beyond this point there is a fine line between documentary and propaganda. A gray area, that depends on who’s watching the documentary, their beliefs and reality.

To the extent that Stone’s interviews appear natural and not rehearsed South Of The Border qualifies as a political documentary. The difficulty is that there is little factual support produced for what Chavez and others claim has happened and for what they are doing now. This does not mean that what they are saying is false; it only means that you have to take their word for it. So this film is more of a series of conversations than a documentary film. In all fairness the sub title for the film says “Oliver Stone Reports. You Decide.” Still it would have been helpful to have more information to consider. There are a couple of short quotes from supporters of Chavez. Also a mysterious clip of Michael Moore lambasting Wolf Blitzer of CNN for not asking the right questions of the Bush administration and causing the US to get embroiled in Iraq.

To some, South Of The Border might be considered propaganda, however, the POV of the film is clear and the film furnishes the viewer with an alternative to the propaganda from the other side. In this respect it accomplishes a great deal, by presenting an alternative viewpoint. With a running time of seventy-eight minutes South Of The Border could have furnished more first person viewpoints from the citizens of each of these countries or local opposition view points to those of the leaders interviewed. Doing so would have pushed the film into a holistic political documentary context.

Past US interference in the affairs of many South Of The Border countries is well documented but not always common knowledge in the United States. South Of The Border looks at some of these intrusions and the resentment felt by the people of these countries. It is educational and informative and is a non condesending view of these South American leaders and their countries.

J R Martin

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TRAILER

Tags: Bolivia, Brazil, Directing Documentary Films, Hugo Chavez, Oliver Stone, Venezuela
Posted in Director, Documentary Film Reviews, Subscribers | No Comments »

RIVERS AND TIDES – ANDY GOLDSWORTHY - WORKING WITH TIME

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

Rivers and Tides begins in the gray white snow where one of Andy Goldsworthy’s stone, cone shaped sculptures is seen by the water. The camera pans across a colorless, rock strewn beach. Goldsworthy appears from behind some rocks and walks to the water. He is wearing a blue parka that contrasts with the stark gray environment. The wind and water complete the scene as Goldsworthy explains his artistic philosophy. “Art for me is a form of nourishment. I need the land, I need it,” he states standing on the shore looking at the sea.

Rivers And Tides is a film, which demonstrates that a documentary may be both art and actuality. Andy Goldsworthy creates his work in natural environments with materials from nature including leaves, flower pedals, twigs, pinecones, snow, sand and stone. He has traveled the world creating installations that in some cases are reclaimed by nature immediately or within a few hours of being constructed.

Rivers and Tides offers an intimate portrait of an artist. It examines how Goldsworthy constructs a number of his sculptures and other works. At the same time the film reveals how he feels about the work he creates from materials found in nature and exhibited there. These projects include rock walls; rock sculptures, constructions made from sticks, twigs and leaves. He introduces natural colors and materials from nature to create art that reinforces and complements the environmental venues.

Since Goldsworthy works so closely with nature this documentary is also about nature and the natural order of the environment. The documentary shows how his work is connected with the land. Early scenes in the film are shot in Nova Scotia where Goldsworthy is working on a commission he has received. This environment feels untouched, reminiscent of the groundbreaking documentary Nanook of The North released in 1922. Robert Flaherty who made Nanook believed that the Inuit people of that time had a connection with the land and sea. Goldsworthy too appears to have an intimate connection with rocks, and other organic materials he touches. He speaks of the “energy and life that is running, flowing through the landscape.” Much of his work flows though the landscape, contrasting and complementing the form and shape of the earth, rivers and topography. The documentary travels with Goldsworthy to Scotland where he lives and works. This is home and he knows the land and rivers well.

Rivers and Tides is a beautifully shot work of art on it’s own. The cinematography for this film is excellent always allowing light to play its role in telling the story. Each scene is rich in detail and color. Director Thomas Riedelsheimer vision is in tune with nature and how Goldsworthy’s work integrates itself into the environment. The film manages to bring the work to the screen in a way that allows you to experience it as it was intended. It is both entertaining and informative. Music composed by Fred Firth is perfect for the story. The editing of the film and audio mix are harmonious. Rivers and Tides combines all the filmmaking elements available to the craft to create a warm and revealing portrait of an artist and his work. The fact that Goldsworthy’s work is always a part of nature makes this documentary unique and inspiring.

Rivers and Tides is a documentary that is a portrait of an artist, an exploration of nature and a documentary that is art based on actuality.

J R Martin
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TRAILER

Tags: Andy Goldworthy, Art, Documentary Film Review, environment, Nature, River and Tides
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STYLE WARS

Monday, December 27th, 2010

Style Wars is a documentary that looks at graffiti “writers,” “bombers” and “taggers” in New York City starting in the 1970’s. It sees graffiti, or “street art,” (a more recent development) as part of a three-part hip-hop movement that includes, graffiti as the written word, rap as the spoken word, and acrobatic break dancing as the physical manifestation.

The 1982 documentary Style Wars, a film by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfont approaches the subject of graffiti as a social phenomenon. In Style Wars the filmmakers set out to tell the story of graffiti artists in New York City, their battle with the City, NY Transit Authority and to some extent among themselves.

In addition to the historical context there are a number of parallel themes developed in Style Wars. There is a sociological connection regarding the unseen, unappreciated, outside the establishment part of the society demanding to be heard and recognized.

Any conversation regarding this documentary must begin with the opening of the film. New York subway trains emerge out of the darkness to Wagner, a scene which ends with a transition to hip-hop music and the streets of New York City. The graffiti on the trains emerges out of the darkness along with the trains; an inventive opening to a documentary that manages to give you a look into the social and cultural aspects that rise from the exploration of this subculture.

In an interview with the Ed Koch Mayor of New York, Koch abstractly compares doing graffiti with murder! He also expresses concern about “the quality of life” for New Yorkers. He feels the graffiti writers are “destroying our life style and making it difficult to enjoy life.” As a subway rider himself the Mayor apparently did not enjoy looking at the graffiti, so he declared war on the “writers.” The writers retaliated with a “Dump Koch” bomb on the side of a train!

From a number of perspectives, Style Wars explores the reality of the graffiti writers, who do both tagging [leaving your sign] and “bombing” spraying artwork on trains and buildings. These are mostly young creative kids from the projects and working class neighborhoods, who are of many different ethnic and racial backgrounds. They all seem to have a need to rebel against authority and let others know they are around.

Henry Chalfont, one of the filmmakers, on arriving in New York City, was taken with the graffiti art he saw painted on the trains. He started taking still photographs of the best work he found. One day he met a young person who was also taking pictures. This person told him where the “writers” met to compare notes and talk. He went there to meet them. At first they thought he was a cop, just waiting for a moment to trap them so they could all be arrested. After awhile he started getting calls about where new work was going to turn up. Later, teaming with Tony Silver, they decided on how to approach making the documentary and how to tell the story.

In the film, New York City tries all kinds of methods to stop the writing and to erase it from the inside and outside of the trains. While it seems that there was a lot creative art being done on the sides of the trains, the inside graffiti degenerated into hundreds of tags and gang signs over every inch of the car. Graffiti writers were at war with each other and writing over each other’s work.

An advertising campaign to dissuade the writers was initiated that tried to make the act socially unacceptable. The writers already considered themselves as outcasts so that campaign probably didn’t have much effect. Eventually the city resorted to putting up double cyclone fences with razor wire on the top, and dogs patrolling in between the fences to keep the writers out of the train yards. Trains were not parked for more than ten minutes. This along with some commercialization of the graffiti writing art, essencially ended the cycle of “bombing” the trains.

Style Wars, as a documentary has made a significant contribution to the body of knowledge regarding the motivation of these early graffiti writers and the subculture from which they emerged. The work of graffiti writers is now often called “Street Art.” But it’s likely that the current “street artists,” are driven by the same needs as the “writers” back in the day.

This documentary is well directed, shot, edited; both entertaining and informative. It tells a story and at the same time explores social, cultural and anthropological issues. It also provides a historical look at the roots of modern graffiti and street art around the world.

JRMartin

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TRAILER

Tags: GRAFFITI, NEW YORK CITY, STREET ARTIST, STYLE WARS
Posted in Director, Documentary Film Reviews, Subscribers | 2 Comments »

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB

Saturday, October 30th, 2010

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB -1999 – 105 Minutes – Directed by Wim Wenders – Road Movies Filmproduktion – Artisian Home Entertainment

The Buena Vista Social Club documentary captures the soul of Cuba as portrayed in its music and performed by its people. A Documentary film may take many forms. Buena Vista Social Club, directed by Wim Wenders manages to bring the actuality and beauty of classic Cuban music, the singers and musicians who perform it and the world from which it was born to life on the screen. The music also known as “Son” or “Cuban soul” music has an Afro-Cuban Jazz component. The documentary also shows Cuba at the turn of the century where time, for the main part, appears to have stopped in the late fifties.

There are a number of themes that are edited in parallel, creating a story that is both moving and entertaining. Scenes from the concert in Amsterdam, interviews with the Buena Vista Club musicians set against the backdrop of Havana and other locations in Cuba, along with the recording sessions at Egren Studios in Havana, are all seamlessly blended. Finally the musicians’ visit New York City. The last performance of the Buena Vista Social Club is held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. For many of the musicians the visit and perfomance is a dream come true.

In the opening scenes of the film, Compay Segundo one of the well known musicians, visits the neighborhood where the club once existed. These scenes are intercut with establishing shots at the Amsterdam concert. There is a sense, as the concert begins, as to the roots of the music and the musicians. The stark Cuban colors of Havana and the de-saturated, muted colors of the concert hall, contrast in the montage so that the streets and neighborhoods of Havana feel as though they are there in the concert hall.

Scenes, early in the film, of Havana in 1998 are like moving through a 1950’s auto museum housed among faded buildings. But it’s clear that the roots of the music are much older than the buildings. Each interview with a musician brings us closer to understanding the “son” of Cuban Music. As each musician or singer is introduced he or she is often seen performing in the concert venue as well as in Cuba. Camera work, including Stedicam, by Director of Photography, Jorg Widmer is excellent.

Early in the film Ibrahim Ferrer, who is 70 years old, sings with Omara Portuondo in the Havana recording studio. The scene dissolves into the same song being performed in Amsterdam. The two locations are juxtapositioned a number of times before we return to another interview or location in Cuba. The story is narrated by the music and first person interviews with the musicians and singers. There is no need for a third party voice over narrator. One thing that would have helped the story would have been graphics identifying each musician as they are introduced throughout the documentary since not every person introduces himself or herself. However they are listed in order of appearance at the beginning of the film and alphabetically at the end of the film.

The documentary was conceived out of the success of The Buena Vista Social Club CD that was produced by Ry Cooder for Nick Gold, World Circuit Records. Ry Cooder, who has worked with Captain Beefheart, Johnny Cash and the Rolling Stones, among others, feels that the Buena Vista Social Club CD was the best of his work. The sessions recorded in Cuba were brought back to LA to produce the CD, which ultimately received a Grammy, world acclaim, and sold millions of copies.

A particularly interesting segment is the interview with Barbaro Alberto Torres Degado, also know as, “Barbarito” Torres. Barbarito plays the Cuban Laud, which was brought to Spain by the Moors where it evolved, and ultimately made its way to Cuba, where it once again morphed into the instrument that Barbarito plays. This stringed instrument lends a unique sound to Cuban provincial and contemporary music.

At Carnegie Hall there is a wonderful performance by everyone; Ruben Gonzalez, a 90-year-old pianist, plays piano and is intercut with shots of the performers touring New York City. The music continues under the shots of New York City as they tour, giving the impression that we are seeing the wonders of New York City filtered by the musicians music and experience.

There are twenty plus members of the Buena Vista Social Club who play or sing at both concerts including Compay Segundo, Omara Partuondo, Pio Leyva, Eliades Ochou, Ibrahim Ferrer, Joachim Cooder and Ry Cooder to name only a few.

The Buena Vista Social Club documentary captures the soul of Cuba as portrayed in its music and performed by its people.

JRMartin

Trailer Buena Vista Social Club